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Hungary’s new law allows reporting on same-sex families

Bill enables people to file anonymous reports with authorities about homosexual couples raising children

The EU has been at loggerheads with Hungary's government, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
The EU has been at loggerheads with Hungary's government, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán © Photo credit: John Thys/AFP Pool/AP/dpa

Hungarian lawmakers have passed a bill that enables citizens to report anonymously on same-sex couples who raise children to authorities.

Under the bill, approved earlier this week, people are allowed to report those who contest the “constitutionally recognised role of marriage and the family” and those who contest children’s rights “to an identity appropriate to their sex at birth.”

Hungary’s constitution protects the institution of marriage as a formation “between one man and one woman,” and also specifies “the mother is a woman, the father a man.”

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s governments have curbed the rights of the country’s LGBTQ community and effectively barred adoption for same-sex couples. That was one of the reasons why Hungary was cut off from European Union funding.

In 2022, the European Commission brought a lawsuit before the European Court of Justice against Hungary for a 2021 law that discriminates against LGBTQ minorities. A majority of member states have joined the lawsuit on the Commission’s side.

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Source: Bloomberg